Canines chase cars and humans drive them, so I’m not sure where the name comes from for this second album for Dom Mariani’s instro/surf music offshoot. It is probably just a signal that they’re not taking it all too seriously. It’s doubtful the disc contains sounds with frequencies too high for all but animal ears, but it sure sounds damn fine when you’re behind the wheel.
If the first Majestic Kelp album (“Underwater Casino”) was more restrained than fans of the band-leading primo garage-popster from Perth might have come to expect, “Music To Chase Cars By” makes amends. Not that Mariani and his mates have to be apologetic; it’s just that their second effort moves outside the relatively modest “lounge-surf” confines and dips its collective toe into half-a-dozen different musical oceans. Like a big sponge, the Kelps draw all on the obvious surf influences - and then a few more - exploring hot rod fuzz, driving slide-guitar pop and Byrdsian jangle-play along the way. The result is a refreshingly bright and unpretentious album.
Surf music has a long and enduring heritage in Australia, being the form of rock and roll that local instro bands learned before the tidal wave of beat hit in the early ‘60s. Its legacy is sometimes a search for authenticity that borders on an obsession that imposes its own limitations. (I once knew a surf guitarist who was so close to the sounds of The Atlantics and Hank Marvin that you could have sworn he was channelling them; then he obscured his solo album with more phasing and flanging than a kid with a blank cheque in a guitar shop on an pedal buying spree. Which shows that some surf guitarists can’t see the beach-break for the sand dunes).
The feel of “Music To Chase Cars By” is warmer than Cottesloe on a still January day. It sounds like The Majestic Kelp worked with all the right instrumentation and amplification to come across as The Real Deal, but decided to mix it up and avoid clichés. The core band - Dom, Robbie Scorer (drums) and Stu Loasby (bass) - will be familiar to Mariani fans, with organist Tobias Gosfield an addition since the first album. The playing is as top-shelf as the guest list (famed slide player Dave Hole on mandolin, saxophonist Billy Rogers, most notably).
There's much to please fans of just about any instro genre, from the sax-inflected space-surf of "Occhilupo" to the 12-string chime of "The Byrds Have Flown" (no guessing from where that title comes), to hotrod fuzz ("Traffic Jam City") and Shadows sparkle ("Off the Top of My Head"), the Kelps have every base covered.
Fun soundtrack to this or any other summer. Surf and enjoy!
P.S.: Yes, we know much of this album isn't surf in the purist (double-picking) sense of the term, but we deliberately went with what's in popular usage. Dig?
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